


home (it's in her hands)

by palladionaigis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Shallura Zine, Shiro needs therapy or a hug dammit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 23:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13422204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palladionaigis/pseuds/palladionaigis
Summary: She's the light at the end of the tunnel, his everything, his home, and his love for her transcends time and space.[[ Written for the Shallura zine Stars Aligned, Issue Two: Onwards.]]





	home (it's in her hands)

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I realized I never posted this, and I need to get this the hell out of my WIPs folder and into my completed and published. Here's this! This was written for the Shallura zine, Stars Aligned, issue two: Onwards. I couldn't be happier with what a welcoming community the Shallura fandom is (we may be small, but we are mighty!) and thank you so much to the admins, Cat and Jules, for letting my piece be featured. It's the first time I'd had anything put into a zine so I hope to continue this in the future.
> 
> Enjoy everyone!

After everything he’s seen and been through, Shiro doesn’t believe in God. Things have changed too much, especially in him, but also in those around him. Whether it’s the wisdom in his makeshift family’s eyes (it’s definitely new, he hasn’t seen it before), or how the universe saw them get rid of one threat only to throw at them yet another, he realizes he’d be doomed if it hadn’t been for the one thing that had kept him going during his time in the astral plane. The simple knowledge that somewhere out there, they were waiting... she was waiting...

They still scold him once they find him, of course. It’d been weeks of constant worry for them without any sign from him, no word on even whether or not he was alive. Later, he finds out from Hunk that for days on end Pidge would sit at the station in the main room and just search for any sort of signal — a ping that meant he had reappeared, a notice from Black stating she had found him, going without sleep staring at the screens covered in Altean, always without any developments. He also learned that Hunk was the one forcing everyone to try and stay healthy and positive during the time he was missing — Shiro would want us to stay strong, so please, Pidge, you haven’t eaten in two days, and Keith, when was the last time you sat down and had some water and gave yourself a break, and Princess, you need sleep too — and Shiro’s heart hurts. According to Coran, Lance and Keith had stopped arguing entirely during his time away, with Keith too focused on exploring the surrounding galaxies in order to find their leader, his friend, and Lance too focused on stepping up, losing a lot of the boyish, almost childlike charm and humor that had so many times made Shiro roll his eyes but laugh anyway.

His first day back is a blur. It’s entirely a coincidence when he remembers, yet again, the overwhelming feeling of nothing — the void of the astral plane — and then suddenly feeling his senses fizzle back into awareness, and he can feelBlack’s purring in the very depths of his soul and he knows she’s here with him, and it’s barely minutes of floating in space focusing on the sound of his own breathing echoing in his helmet before sure enough, the Castle of Lions appears in the front of his eyes. It’s several hugs, from Coran, Keith and Lance, tears from Pidge and Hunk, and when he can finally deter his gaze from the other paladins, she is there — standing in the doorway, cheeks flushed and out of breath as though she ran the whole way down to the hangar from the bridge — and for a long and tense moment, she looks almost as though she is going to cry.

In her mind, it’s a harsh battle between jumping into his arms and keeping her cool like the princess she’d been raised to be, and while her eyes burn and sting as though tears are about to fall any moment, she merely steps forward and lays a gentle hand against his shoulder, feeling his familiar sturdiness under her palm, and tells him she’s glad he’s back.

The rest of his day is hours of updates, of insistence on resting, Hunk forcing him to eat and making sure he was physically still sound, Coran suggesting that a trip through the cryo-replenisher wouldn’t be too much of a bad idea... but each time they tell him to rest, he assures them he is fine, that he doesn’t feel strange, sick, or even injured. He decides to omit the fact that he is afraid he’s dreaming, afraid that any second he’s going to wake up back in the loneliness of the void unless he remains completely alert. It’s as if the lives of the Voltron paladins go on hold to welcome him back. Pidge falls asleep in the bridge again while they’re all listening to Shiro keep telling them he’s okay, and when Hunk finally leaves for bed, he wakes her and relocates her to the bedrooms.

Coran notices, sharp as he is, that as the paladins slip off one by one, each more comforted than the last at the knowledge that Shiro is here and home with them again, that Allura lingers. She’s always within a few feet of Shiro, trying not to make a show of following him around, and Coran resigns himself and bids the both of them goodnight with full knowledge they will be sharing the bridge alone. He’s seen the way she’s been acting the past few weeks, and seen the way they looked at each other in the weeks and months leading up to their final battle with Zarkon, but he has no intention of raising an objection to the both of them being together.

He is at peace when he walks out of the bridge. As soon as the door slides shut behind Coran, Shiro looks to the control hub. She is still at the wheel, and he steps up behind her, giving her fair warning before he approaches too close. Her shoulders are shaking.

“Princess,” he tries to say, but his voice breaks and betrays him. He takes a deep breath and tries again. “Allura...” His voice is hardly above a whisper. She turns to him, and there are tears in her eyes and more already staining her cheeks as they fall. Her eyes the same bright color that he remembers, and he steps forward. The fingers of his left hand reach forward because he wants to feel the warmth of her skin, and he tangles his fingers with hers. His other arm reaches out for her, and she crumbles into his embrace. The gesture is achingly intimate. While Alteans share embraces much like humans, there’s something about the way he bends down and wraps his arms tightly around her waist, keeping her as close as he can, that makes her cling to him that much more.

“Takashi,” she whispers, all but burying herself into his arms, and his heart breaks. She hardly ever calls him by his first name, and knowing it’s in the midst of tears hurts him even more. For several long minutes, all he can hear is her soft crying, the rustle of her dress against his clothes as she sobs. “You were gone. We thought you were dead. No one knew where you were.” Her voice is thick with her tears, muffled into the skin of his neck. 

“I’m sorry.” It’s all he can even think to say. “I know it’ll never be enough just to say that. I left you for so long.”

“You came back. That’s all that matters.” She shakes her head as she replies.

“I didn’t come back,” he says softly, and she looks at him in confusion. “I came home.” Her face immediately softens because the way he looks at her when he says those words tells her for certain that he means her. He reaches up and pulls at his sleeve with his thumb to wipe her tears, but before he can even completely dry her cheek, her hand slides to his jaw. Her thumb traces his cheekbone and the edge of the scar that crosses his nose, her index finger runs over the slope of his eyelid, her palm moves to the back of his neck, feeling the short buzzed hair at his nape, and she pulls him down to eye level.Her lips meet his, and while this kind of intimacy is more human than Altean, Allura can’t think of a better way to show him how happy she is to see him again. He’s shocked for a moment, but wastes no time returning her kiss, though it’s short and chaste.

“I missed you so much,” she says as she rests her forehead against his.

“It’s a good thing I don’t intend on leaving again.”

“Not if I can help it.”


End file.
